


You made me a, you made me a believer

by finnjonesbaratheon



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: I’ll (probably) update this as the story progresses, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-13
Updated: 2019-03-24
Packaged: 2019-10-27 10:16:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17764874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/finnjonesbaratheon/pseuds/finnjonesbaratheon
Summary: Billy was fully confused. How could he not be? He knew nothing of the Upside Down or demogorgons. He’d always asked Steve why he kept a bat in the trunk of his car, and Steve had always managed to come up with some bullshit explanation that sounded more plausible than ‘I need it for protection against creatures from another dimension’.





	1. Gates Opened

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, it’s me again. I decided to discontinue my Harringrove roommates fanfic because it wasn’t going the way I wanted it to and I lost motivation to continue it after I deleted it the first time (which, tbh, is my own fault for deleting it in the first place). I’ve decided to start writing another Harringrove fic and I’ll be less strict on myself this time so that I don’t lose motivation again.

Desperate fingers burrowed beneath denim. A breathy moan escaped Steve’s lips as Billy palmed over his boxers. Billy’s own mouth found the hollow of Steve’s neck—all open and inviting, pretty as could be even under the cover of the evening darkness—and his teeth met flesh while his tongue flicked around the spot. More moans were released as the car was filled with the sounds of Steve’s heavy breathing and skin on skin.

“ _Jesus Christ_ , Billy—”

Anything else Steve might have said was swallowed up by the low guttural groan that broke through once Billy removed his mouth from the hollow of Steve’s neck and placed it on his dick. Wet and warm, Billy took Steve in deeper, ever-so-slowly in order to drag out the pleasure, until the tip of Steve’s dick was hitting the back of Billy’s throat.

Steve’s fingers instinctively went into Billy’s hair, carding them through the dirty blond locks and finding a grip in the tresses as Billy bobbed his head up and down. Their positioning in Steve’s car was slightly awkward, and Steve’s leg was starting to cramp up from it trying to support some of his weight, but the brunette boy could ignore it all if it meant that Billy would keep using his mouth like that.

Hums of pleasure began to fill the air. Billy hummed out every-so-often when he could—when his throat wasn’t preoccupied with making Steve’s dick its permanent resident—any time he bobbed his head back up. He tried to give Steve a sly smile, but he could hardly move his body.

“ _Jesus Christ_ , Billy, I think I’m gonna fucking cum.”

Billy hummed again, bobbing his head faster now with hands working in tandem, and held Steve’s dick in its position in the back of his throat for five seconds… ten seconds. He breathed through his nose, making sure to be careful that he didn’t make himself go lightheaded. Steve’s moaning quickly turned to nonsensical babbling, but Billy had expected this.

It wasn’t just because he gave the best damn blowjobs anyone in Hawkins had ever seen (he did), but because he knew how vocal Steve got any time they did anything even mildly sexual. Back when they were just making out with each other in secret—before Steve had accepted that he wanted another boy to touch him _like that_ , like the way he’d thought he’d only let Nancy and other girls touch him—Steve had always been loud with his moans of pleasure.

Steve’s hands gripping onto his hair made Billy feel like he was a god. No, scratch that. It made him feel he had brought a god to his knees.

A sound ripped through the air, startling both boys enough to make them immediately stop what they were doing and check the windows.

“What the _fuck_ was that?!” Billy demanded, wiping the spit on and around his mouth with the back of his sleeve.

Steve rolled down his windows slightly and tilted his head so that he could see off into the distance where the noise came from. _Nothing_. The sky was too dark for anything to be seen. Plus, Steve and Billy had parked in a particularly dark and isolated spot so they’d have a lower chance of being seen by any unsuspecting individuals who decided to go on a late night stroll past this area.

The sound came again, but this time Steve was rolling back up his car window and shoving his key in the ignition, then slamming on the gas. The fact that his dick was still out was of little importance to him in his current state of panic.

“We’ve gotta get the fuck outta here. _Now_!”

Billy was fully confused. How could he not be? He knew nothing of the Upside Down or demogorgons. He’d always asked Steve why he kept a bat in the trunk of his car, and Steve had always managed to come up with some bullshit explanation that sounded more plausible than ‘ _I need it for protection against creatures from another dimension_ ’.

“Steve, what the _fuck_ is going on?” Billy’s voice was edging on annoyed. “What the fuck was that? Why are you driving like a bat out of hell?”

“You need to trust me right now and stop asking so many questions, Billy. I promise I’m doing you a favor.”

The car accelerated until Steve finally felt like he was in a well lit enough area. He stopped at the trafficking light and, when he saw other cars drive past, his heart finally settled. As he waited for the light to turn green, he put his dick back in his pants and zipped up, tapping on the steering wheel and pointedly ignoring the look that Billy was giving him out of the corner of his eye.

“I’ll drop you back home,” Steve announced, forcibly changing the conversation.

“Don’t be a dumbass. Drop me off at the usual place. You know that Neil will murder me if he sees me coming out of your car,” Billy replied with a sigh, accepting that he wouldn’t get an answer out of Steve tonight.

Steve just nodded at that, then continued to drive off once the light turned green.


	2. Gathering at Will Byers’

Once Steve had dropped Billy off away from his house so that Neil wouldn’t see Steve’s car and start asking Billy questions, he hightailed it to Mrs. Byers’ place. He knew that if _he_ had heard the demogorgon then Will and the others had to have heard it, too. They had to talk about this. They’d all thought that Eleven had closed the gate and destroyed the demogorgon. So why the fuck was it back?

Couldn’t they get one fucking break?!

In no time, Steve’s car was in Joyce Byers’ driveway. He slammed his door shut, not even caring about the damage it would do to Petunia—yeah, he named his car; so what?—and marched up to Mrs. Byers’ door.

His assumptions had been right.

Whether it was because they’d all already been there, or because they all managed to get there at superhuman speed once they heard the sound of the demogorgon, the usual gang were all gathered in Joyce’s kitchen—sans Eleven. Steve’s eyes went around the room to count the present members and he frowned at the realization that they were, unfortunately, Eleven-less. And Hopper-less, actually, now that he paid attention.

“Eleven’s gone MIA,” Mike announced next to a shaky Nancy, sensing Steve’s confusion, “and Hopper’s out looking for her.”

“Wait, _what_? Out _there_? Where that _thing_ can get him? He’s a fucking sitting duck, Mike!” They should’ve all known better than to let Hopper leave. Eleven had powers, so even if she was out there alone she could take care of herself. Cop or not, Hopper couldn’t do shit to stop a demon from another dimension.

“What the hell were we supposed to do, Steve? Lock a grown ass man inside a room?!” Mike shot back. They were all on edge.

“OK, let’s all calm down,” Joyce cut in, trying to prevent an argument from breaking out. “Yelling at each other isn’t going to make this situation any better.”

She was right. Every time they’d thought they were in the clear, something happened to remind them all that their lives would never be the same again. Too much had happened for things to go back to normal, and the demogorgon was determined to never let them have a single moment where they could pretend that things were normal.

“Let’s just try to think of a plan,” she continued, then started pacing. Jonathan and Will stared at her worriedly. “So, we all heard it. How far away does everyone think it was?”

Everyone shrugged their shoulders. It was really hard to gauge distance at night. Plus, the demogorgon could have demodogs and they’d all be really fucked if that ended up being the case.

“I… I heard it down by the quarry. About fifteen minutes ago,” Steve finally spoke up, careful to leave out the details of _why_ he’d been at the quarry in the first place.

“Why were you at the quarry so late at night?” Nancy asked him, obviously refusing to let him off the hook so easily.

He panicked for a moment. This was why he’d been hesitant to announce his findings in the first place. Nobody knew about he and Billy, and they’d both agreed to keep things that way. There wasn’t even a _he and Billy_. They just hung out together sometimes and did stuff. Yeah. Totally. Truth be told, Steve had no fucking clue where he and Billy—there was no _he and Billy_ —stood on… well, _anything_.

“Just driving to clear my head. It’s super relaxing down there,” he explained hastily, choking back a nervous laugh. It was clear as day that he was lying, but, thankfully, nobody else decided to press the issue. Steve always forgot what a godawful liar he was when he was put on the spot.

“OK, it was close to the quarry about fifteen minutes ago,” Joyce said, taking out a piece of paper and a pen from her kitchen drawer and placing it on the table as she scribbled down what Steve told the group.

“Jonathan and I heard it when we were driving here. It was probably at the same time that Steve heard it,” Nancy added, flicking her eyes from Jonathan to Joyce.

Joyce nodded and scribbled that down, too.

“Anybody else?” She asked. “We need to make a coherent timeline of events.”

“Max!” Dustin shouted abruptly. Everyone stared at him in confusion. “Guys, remember when we were hanging out with Max today and she told us that she heard some weird noises over the weekend when she went out riding her skateboard?”

“She probably was hearing the demogorgon!” Lucas added.

“Exactly!” Dustin confirmed. “But we all didn’t assume that at first because Eleven closed the gate. Or so we thought.”

“Hang on, wait a second,” Jonathan said, looking between Dustin and Lucas. “You mean to tell me that this thing has been back since last _weekend_? And it’s just, what? Been laying low until now?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s been feeding? Probably getting stronger.” Dustin shrugged. “I don’t have _all_ the answers, Jonathan.”

Steve thought he was going to pass out.

“Oh, this is great. This is fuckin’ perfect. Totally what I needed before I graduated high school.” He was rambling to himself. “This is just absolutely fucking perfect. Great last couple of months we’ve got going on right now.”

“Steve, _calm the hell down_ ,” Nancy told him, grabbing onto his shoulders. “We’re all here. We’re all gonna figure this out. You’ll graduate and get away from this fucked up town and all of this will be a distant memory one day.”

Steve knew she was just trying to make him feel better. His grades weren’t good enough to get him out of Hawkins. He was lucky his parents had money because that was really all he had going for him right now. But still, he appreciated her effort.

“Thanks, Nancy,” he told her. She gave him a warm smile then walked to where Jonathan stood. It was still so hard to accept that what he had felt for her had been entirely one-sided.

There would be times when she would be so kind and he would look at her and think that maybe he had just imagined the whole breakup—maybe he had imagined Tina’s party and Nancy’s drunken lips telling him that he was _bullshit_ and that their relationship was _bullshit_ ; maybe he had imagined sober Nancy being unable to tell him that she loved him.

But then she would run to Jonathan and settle herself beside him, looking like she’d always belonged there, and Steve would remember that the heartache he felt for months was absolutely real, and that meant that their breakup had been real, too.

It had all been too much, and perhaps _that_ was why it had been so easy to get caught up in Billy Hargrove. But, if Steve was being honest with himself, his attraction to Billy couldn’t entirely be blamed on any heartache he felt after he and Nancy’s breakup. His breakup with Nancy sure as hell was a nice shield for when he was still denying his feelings for Billy, however.

“Alright!” Joyce clapped her hands together, breaking into Steve’s thoughts, and stared at the group. “So how’re we gonna kill this sonofabitch once and for all?”


	3. The Sight

When he pulled up to their school parking lot the next morning, Jonathan and Nancy were standing against Jonathan’s car huddled together. They looked like they were having an intense discussion. Nancy had a serious look on her face and her brows were creased. When she saw Steve get out of his car, she called his name and motioned him over to where she and Jonathan stood. Steve checked his watch and saw that they still had another five minutes before they really had to get to homeroom, so he walked over to the pair expectantly.

“Yeah?” He asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

Jonathan looked around the parking lot, making sure that no one else was close enough to hear them, before moving closer to Steve and, in a lowered voice, saying, “Will had another episode last night. After everyone left and we went off to bed. He was thrashing around in his bed and screaming. It woke me and mom up.”

Steve nodded along as Jonathan spoke. Then said, “What was he saying? Was it more stuff about the Mind Flayer?” His voice was lowered just like Jonathan’s.

Jonathan frowned. His face looked like he was trying to properly collect his thoughts and find the right words for what he wanted to say. “No, not that. He kept talking about how he could see. But not like when he had The Sight.”

Steve could tell that Jonathan put that in capital letters just by the way he said it.

“It’s more like this new way. Like… he’s connected to the demogorgon somehow. But it’s not like when he got trapped in the Upside Down. It’s like he _is_ the demogorgon.”

Steve let out a whispered “ _what the fuck_ ”.

“So, he’s like attached to the demogorgon? Like he sees who the demogorgon is going to attack next?”

“No and yes,” Nancy spoke up. “Apparently it’s like a static-y connection. Like when El was in the Upside Down and she tried to get in contact with Mike through his walky-talky, but everything came out sounding like static.”

_Jesus Christ_. They were in deeper shit than he’d thought. They really would never get a day free of this, would they?

“So can Will control the demogorgon somehow? Get it to stop attacking people?”

Both Nancy and Jonathan gave each other a somber look. Steve didn’t like where this was headed.

“Jonathan and I were talking before you arrived and we think that the demogorgon is doing this on purpose. Y’know… trying to make Will pay for getting El to close the gate last time. It’s making Will watch as it kills people. And we saw how much energy it took out of Eleven the last time she tried to close the gate, and the demogorgon probably knows that too. And that’s probably why it came back so soon.”

Steve needed to fucking sit down.

“So, what? It’s playing a sick joke on a middle schooler, making him watch as it kills people?” Steve was bordering on hysterical, so Nancy and Jonathan both had to shush him so he wouldn’t draw attention to them all.

It was at that exact moment that Billy Hargrove stomped his way over to them and flicked his cigarette butt on the ground in their direction. He then proceeded to blow smoke at them and cackled when they all coughed.

“Get the fuck outta here, Billy,” Jonathan ordered, still coughing up a lung.

Billy’s eyes quickly snapped to Jonathan and he stepped closer, encroaching on Jonathan’s personal space. His face was right up against Jonathan’s as he said, in a low growl, “Repeat that, Byers.”

Jonathan lifted his arms up to Billy’s chest and pushed Billy back with all his strength. “Get the fuck outta my face, asshole,” he ordered again.

There were many things in life that Billy didn’t take too kindly to, and being told what to do by _anyone_ — _especially_ people from the middle of Assfuck, Indiana—was at the top of his list. He saw red, and Steve could see that Billy saw red. Jumping in between the two of them before Billy had the opportunity to punch Jonathan square in the jaw, Steve said, “We’ve gotta get to class, dude. This isn’t the time or place for this.”

And he was right. They all had two minutes to get their asses to homeroom before before the bell rang. Billy might’ve been itching to punch someone, but he wasn’t stupid. He knew that if he fought Jonathan Byers on school property—right before the beginning of a school day, no less—Neil would have his ass buried six feet deep so fast. So he backed off, though he was obviously unhappy about it. He’d really wanted to punch Jonathan Byers’ stupid face in.

Steve was glad that Billy had enough common sense and self-preservation to (begrudgingly) back off, but he knew that he wouldn’t hear the end of it the next time he and Billy met up for their usual… _meetings_. He watched as Billy walked away with his arm across some random blonde girl’s shoulder.

“He’s such a fucking prick,” Jonathan said with visceral disdain. Steve couldn’t really argue with him on that. Sure, he and Billy had started doing… _whatever_ it was that they were doing (he still didn’t really know what to call it), but that didn’t change Billy’s asshole nature one bit.

“Yeah, well…” Steve didn’t bother to finish his train of thought. “C’mon. We gotta get to class.”


	4. Hands of a Sinner

The school day was fucking boring.

The fact that Steve had managed to stay awake during all of his classes was no small feat. Inching closer to graduation and knowing he didn’t _really_ have to give a shit about any of this stuff anymore—not that he’d really given a shit about it in the first place; his grades could tell you that much—left a lethargy in him that left his body feeling heavy any time he sat in class and listened to whatever bullshit his teachers said. His head felt like it weighed as much as a bag filled with dried cement, and his desk looked too tempting.

But, he’d fought off the urge to fall asleep all throughout Mr. Anderson’s speech about how they’d start on the last chapter of their history textbook and _“pay attention to this because it’ll be on your final.”_ And now he was off to the only class he and Billy shared together—P.E.

With the warmer weather outside, their P.E. coach decided that they were all done with inside workouts and instead would venture outside to run laps around the track field. Sweatband firmly in place every time, Steve felt like he was _dying_ the whole time. Running laps around the track field was a fate worse than the Pacer test, and Steve fucking _hated_ the Pacer test.

Coach always demanded that they run the equivalent of a mile around the track, and any student who didn’t get his mile done within that day’s class period would have to do it the next day, and then the next day, and everyday after until he finally ran the mile. It wasn’t at all surprising to Steve whenever coach blew his whistle when the class period was over and wrote down the names of all the guys who’d have to repeat their runs the next day that his name was always on the list. Did he mention that running laps was a fate worse than the Pacer test?

It also didn’t surprise him when he saw Billy’s name on the list. Billy was an avid smoker—it wasn’t like his lungs were in the best shape to run a fucking mile everyday. But, Steve couldn’t really say anything since he wasn’t innocent when it came to smoking, either. What _did_ surprise him, however, was how much Billy would constantly try to get his attention while they were running.

Since they’d started their… _whatever_ this was they were doing, they’d both tried their best to avoid suspicion by not being in each other’s space as much as they used to be before. (Steve, after he and Billy had first fucked each other, had quickly realized that the reason why they’d been in each other’s faces so much in the first place was due to the sheer amount of sexual tension that lay thick between them; strung taut, you could’ve cut it with a plastic knife.)

But, here Billy was: always knocking himself into Steve, always looking for an excuse to touch Steve either by pushing him out of the way whenever he was running past or by sticking his leg out and tripping Steve, always being in Steve’s space all out in the open where the rest of the guys could see. Granted, from an outsider’s perspective it probably looked like Billy was a bully who was taunting his poor victim.

The rest of the guys got a kick out of it.

Every time Steve face-planted after trying to avoid Billy’s outstretched leg, some douchebag from the peanut gallery would give Billy a whoop of approval.

Fucking assholes.

“Pick up the pace, pretty boy!” Billy yelled as he moved past Steve on the track. He turned around, so that he was now facing Steve and running backwards, and licked his teeth in that predatory _‘I could fucking eat you whole’_ way he did when he wanted to establish dominance over Steve. Steve just rolled his eyes and ignored him. Very little Billy said or did bothered him anymore since Billy started literally sucking his dick.

“Hargrove!” Their coach yelled. “Stop dicking around and fucking _haul your ass!_ You too, Harrington! If you _ladies_ are out here again next week, I’m adding another mile.”

Well, that was _extremely_ unnecessary, if you asked Steve.

So, even though every muscle in his body _screamed_ in agony, he picked up his pace and kicked up his knees. His legs sped up as he almost reached Tommy, who was on his last lap. His heart beat faster, sweat slicked his skin, and his legs ached as he pushed them to run _faster, harder_. After about five minutes of pushing his body to the extreme, Steve finally finished his last lap. Billy came up behind him not too long after, both with only a minute to spare before coach blew his whistle. Class was finally over.

Steve thought he would cry tears of fucking joy.

Now that he was finally in cool-down mode, his body was feeling the effects of his run. He coughed deeply, feeling like he was on the edge of throwing up. His chest fucking hurt, he felt like he was going cross-eyed, and his legs just wanted to fucking double over. He just needed to lay the fuck down.

Once they were all back inside, they hit the showers. The feeling of hot water on his worn out muscles did him a world of good. Steve would’ve let out a moan at how great the feeling was if he wasn’t stopped by the knowledge that he was in a locker room full of other guys, and they’d look at him like he was a fucking pervert if he randomly started moaning.

He was one of the last ones to leave. He’d taken his sweet time in the shower with washing his hair and just letting the hot water wash over him. By the time he’d finished, only a couple other stragglers—Billy included—were left. Steve’s towel was over his head as he dried out his hair, so he didn’t see Billy moving toward him after everyone had left and pushing him against one of the lockers until he felt his back hit the cool metal.

“ _Jesus fucking Christ, Billy_ ,” Steve hissed. “What the fuck did my back ever do to you?”

“Shut the fuck up,” Billy commanded.

He grabbed Steve by the back of the neck and pulled him into a kiss. His hands ran through thick wet hair and it didn’t take long before his tongue was pushing its way into Steve’s mouth. A low moan escaped Steve, sounding downright pornographic. Slender fingers made their way down Billy’s torso, slid to his ass, and firmly squeezed. Billy’s mouth moved down to the hollow of Steve’s neck, where the hickey he gave the brunette boy last night stood on display. He _needed_ to give Steve another one. He _needed_ for everyone to see that Steve _belonged_ to someone.

Steve, unfortunately, had other plans.

“Billy, Billy, Billy, _stop, stop, stop_ ,” he sounded fucking disappointed to be the one to put a cork in their plans, but one of them had to be before they ended up fucking in the locker room and possibly exposing themselves. “We can’t do this here, OK? Just… we can do this later. Somewhere more private.”

Billy gave Steve a look that said he was angry as hell at having to stop, but he understood the impracticality of them fucking each other senseless in the boys’ locker room. One of the guys could’ve left something behind and caught them when he came back to get it. It was too risky, Billy knew that. But that didn’t mean that he was happy about it.

Billy didn’t say anything—just pulled himself away and walked out of the locker room like nothing had happened. Steve, on the other hand, was sporting a rock hard dick under his towel.

 _“Fuck,”_ he swore to himself, knowing that it would take him even _longer_ now before he’d be able to leave the locker room.


	5. Billy and Max

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When will I learn how to post things in a timely fashion?

When Steve walked into the student parking lot that afternoon after school, he saw Jonathan’s car parked right next to his. This was obviously a change from the position it’d been in earlier that morning, and it was a clear sign that Jonathan had something to tell him that he didn’t want to risk anyone else hearing. Inside the parked car sat Jonathan with the windows rolled up. Steve leaned against the car, then knocked on the driver side window to signal Jonathan to roll it down. When Jonathan did so, Steve leaned in closer and cocked his head, then said, “What d’you need to tell me?”

Jonathan leaned partly out the opened window, close to Steve’s ear, and said, “Meet me and Nancy at the quarry. We’re gonna see if any clues are there.” Nancy, seemingly summoned by the mention of her name, came walking out of their school’s doors and moving her way toward Jonathan’s car.

“ _Clues_? Clues like _what_? Didn’t you say that Will shares some kind of connection with the demogorgon? Well, let’s use that connection to find the sonofabitch and kill it once and for all. Boom. Done.” Steve really didn’t understand why Jonathan wanted to go sniffing around for clues. Clues led to disastrous results that Steve didn’t want to bring upon himself now that he was so close to getting the fuck out of Hawkins High.

“Really? You want us to go charging after a demon from another dimension with no Eleven and _no plan_ like a bunch of fucking idiots?” The way Jonathan was saying it made it sound like it was the stupidest fucking thing anyone could have possibly suggested.

“Eleven’s _still_ missing? Mike and the guys haven’t got a single word from her?”

“No. The last time she tried to close the gate, it took _a lot_ out of her. So she went somewhere to recuperate and the only person who’s heard from her is Hopper, but either he’s not willing to tell us anything, or even _he_ doesn’t know where she is.”

They both knew that Hopper wasn’t the sort of person to withhold information about Eleven from them, _especially_ since he fully understood the gravity of what they were all up against.

“Shit, Jonathan,” Steve breathed, running his fingers through his hair. “OK, so we go sniffing around for clues? And then what?” What was Jonathan’s angle here?

“I’ll tell you when we get to the quarry.”

Nancy settled herself in the passenger seat of Jonathan’s car and slammed the door after she got in. She gave Jonathan a quick kiss—it was a kiss that Steve had to look away from. Sure, he’d mostly gotten over Nancy, but that didn’t mean he wanted to watch her suck faces with Jonathan every chance they got. His heart was only beginning to mend, it wasn’t completely healed yet.

“Quarry,” Jonathan reminded Steve again as he put his key in the ignition and started his car.

“Yeah, yeah. I fucking heard ya.”

Steve watched Jonathan drive off, then lazily strolled over to his car and got in. A few feet away, he heard the sound of someone’s speakers blasting and cutting through the relative silence of the student parking lot. Craning his neck out of his window to get a look, he rolled his eyes when he saw Billy leaning against the hood of his car, taking a drag from his cigarette.

Of fucking course Billy would be blasting music in the afternoon and smoking on school property.

Steve watched as the redheaded girl he’d next a few months earlier skated over to where Billy stood with a look of displeasure on her face.

“Why are you always fucking late?” He heard Billy yell above the noise barreling from his car. The girl (Max, he remembered Dustin and the other boys calling her) didn’t say anything, but when she tried to get in the passenger seat of Billy’s car, he grabbed her by the arm and got in her face. Steve couldn’t hear what was said, but when Billy finally let go of Max’s arm, Steve could tell she was holding back tears.

He wanted to say something—wanted to march up to Billy and tell him to stop being such an asshole to someone who he knew couldn’t fight back—but he just sat in his car and watched Billy drive off with Max in the passenger seat.

When they were out of sight, Steve put his car in park and drove off, too. He needed to meet Jonathan and Nancy, and getting himself involved with Billy and Max’s problems was just asking for more trouble than he needed.


End file.
